1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a fitness apparatus and more particularly, to a fitness apparatus capable of moving hands along an elliptical path.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the technology makes progress and the society prospers to enhance the living standard of people, a variety of needs for pastime become relatively high, such as exercise and fitness, sports, travel, and consumer products. Among the needs, the exercise and fitness can be outdoor or indoor. The common indoor fitness apparatuses are miscellaneous, such as elliptical exercise machines, treadmills, flywheel bikes, large weight training machines, or fitness benches. Among them, the elliptical exercise machines can guide users' feet for circulatory exercise along a closed trajectory shaped like an ellipse. Such elliptical exercise is similar to actions of the user's feet while the user is walking and inflicts less impact on the user's joints, no the elliptical exercise machines are very popular among the consumers and have been sold increasingly on the market.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,573,480 disclosed a classical elliptical exercise machine, in which the exercise trajectory is shaped like an ellipse because one end of one support bar is moved along an circular trajectory relatively to a crank mechanism and the other end of the same is limited to a linear trajectory for reciprocating movement.
As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,682,290, one end of a leg support bar is pivotably attached to an external end of a crank to limit the leg support bar to a circular trajectory and the other end of the same is pivotably attached to a bottom end of a pivoting bar to be limited to an arc-shaped trajectory for forward and backward swing. However, each of the aforesaid prior patents puts emphasis on the elliptical exercise of the user's legs and the user's hands could do nothing but grasp the handlebars to do such a boring to-and-fro swing exercise.
In light of the above, Taiwan Patent No. M252461 disclosed an elliptical exercise machine capable of simulating arm exercise, in which the elliptical exercise machine is formed of a framework and two handlebars connected with one end of the framework. Each of the handlebars includes a bottom end pivotably attached to a front end of one of treadles. Each of the treadles includes a distal end pivotably attached to a periphery of a rotary member, e.g. flywheel, and the two treadles correspond to each other on the rotary member for checkered circulatory exercise along a virtual elliptical path, so in this way, the handlebars can do circulatory movement together therewith. However, the arm swing trajectory generated by the aforesaid elliptical exercise machine is shaped like a circle, so the simulated arm swing is still apparently different from what the user does while walking in practice and is not generally ergonomic. Besides, the rotary member is located at the distal end of the framework, so a longer link is needed to transmit the power to the handlebar located at the front end of the framework. In this way, such elliptical exercise machine is limited in selection of the link and cost of material and its size is relatively larger to make the space be ineffectively utilized.